463 research outputs found
The story of the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet
No full textThesis (D. Mus. Arts)--University of Washington, 2000The Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet has been the wind quintet-in-residence at the University of Washington School of Music since 1968. Officially founded in 1962, when its members were on the faculty of the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico, the group has had a long and stable history. Through their concerts, tours, and recordings, the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet has established an international reputation. Over the years, many distinguished composers have written works especially for the Soni Ventorum, thus expanding the repertoire of the wind quintet.This study traces the history of the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet mainly through interviews with the quintet members themselves. This history includes antecedent quintets in which members of the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet participated (namely, a student quintet at the Curtis Institute, The American Wind Ensemble of Vienna, and the U.S. Seventh Army Symphony Wind Quintet). It covers the founding of the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet in 1962 at the Conservatory of Music in Puerto Rico through their tenure from 1968 through the present as the wind quintet-in-residence at the University of Washington in Seattle. It gives an account of the establishment of the Soni Ventorum's recording career, their approach to sound and ensemble, their many tours, participation in festivals and competitions, and personnel. The study details the Soni Ventorum's collaborations with colleagues at the University of Washington School of Music, especially the many composers who wrote pieces for the group. One chapter covers ensemble pieces that have been written for the members of the Son! Ventorum Wind Quintet, while another presents wind quintet and quartet arrangements that were prepared by the quintet members themselves. The final chapter provides biographies of the members of the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet.The Introduction to the study is a brief history of wind quintets. The study concludes with detailed appendices cataloguing the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet's repertoire, concerts, residencies, tours and a complete discography.At the time of this writing, the author is aware of no other work detailing the history of an established wind quintet
Association of common mental disorder symptoms with health and healthcare factors among women in rural western India: results of a cross-sectional survey
No full textFirst author Apurv Soni is a medical student in the MD/PhD Program at UMass Medical School.OBJECTIVES: Information about common mental disorders (CMD) is needed to guide policy and clinical interventions in low-income and middle-income countries. This study's purpose was to characterise the association of CMD symptoms with 3 inter-related health and healthcare factors among women from rural western India based on a representative, cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Surveys were conducted in the waiting area of various outpatient clinics at a tertiary care hospital and in 16 rural villages in the Anand district of Gujarat, India. PARTICIPANTS: 700 Gujarati-speaking women between the ages of 18-45 years who resided in the Anand district of Gujarat, India, were recruited in a quasi-randomised manner. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOMES MEASURES: CMD symptoms, ascertained using WHO's Self-Reporting Questionnaire-20 (SRQ-20), were associated with self-reported (1) number of healthcare visits in the prior year; (2) health status and (3) portion of yearly income expended on healthcare. RESULTS: Data from 658 participants were used in this analysis; 19 surveys were excluded due to incompleteness, 18 surveys were excluded because the participants were visiting hospitalised patients and 5 surveys were classified as outliers. Overall, 155 (22·8%) participants screened positive for CMD symptoms (SRQ-20 score ≥8) with most (81.9%) not previously diagnosed despite contact with healthcare provider in the prior year. On adjusted analyses, screening positive for CMD symptoms was associated with worse category in self-reported health status (cumulative OR=9.39; 95% CI 5·97 to 14·76), higher portion of household income expended on healthcare (cumulative OR=2·31; 95% CL 1·52 to 3.52) and increased healthcare visits in the prior year (incidence rate ratio=1·24; 95% CI 1·07 to 1·44). CONCLUSIONS: The high prevalence of potential CMD among women in rural India that is unrecognised and associated with adverse health and financial indicators highlights the individual and public health burden of CMD.MD/Ph
PULSE-SMART: Pulse-Based Arrhythmia Discrimination Using a Novel Smartphone Application
No full textCo-author Apurv Soni is a medical student in the MD/PhD Program at UMass Medical School.BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common and dangerous rhythm abnormality. Smartphones are increasingly used for mobile health applications by older patients at risk for AF and may be useful for AF screening. OBJECTIVES: To test whether an enhanced smartphone app for AF detection can discriminate between sinus rhythm (SR), AF, premature atrial contractions (PACs), and premature ventricular contractions (PVCs). METHODS: We analyzed two hundred and nineteen 2-minute pulse recordings from 121 participants with AF (n = 98), PACs (n = 15), or PVCs (n = 15) using an iPhone 4S. We obtained pulsatile time series recordings in 91 participants after successful cardioversion to sinus rhythm from preexisting AF. The PULSE-SMART app conducted pulse analysis using 3 methods (Root Mean Square of Successive RR Differences; Shannon Entropy; Poincare plot). We examined the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive accuracy of the app for AF, PAC, and PVC discrimination from sinus rhythm using the 12-lead EKG or 3-lead telemetry as the gold standard. We also administered a brief usability questionnaire to a subgroup (n = 65) of app users. RESULTS: The smartphone-based app demonstrated excellent sensitivity (0.970), specificity (0.935), and accuracy (0.951) for real-time identification of an irregular pulse during AF. The app also showed good accuracy for PAC (0.955) and PVC discrimination (0.960). The vast majority of surveyed app users (83%) reported that it was "useful" and "not complex" to use. CONCLUSION: A smartphone app can accurately discriminate pulse recordings during AF from sinus rhythm, PACs, and PVCs.MD/Ph
Comparing Pre-trained Human Language Models: Is it Better with Human Context as Groups, Individual Traits, or Both?
No full textPre-trained language models consider the context of neighboring words and
documents but lack any author context of the human generating the text.
However, language depends on the author's states, traits, social, situational,
and environmental attributes, collectively referred to as human context (Soni
et al., 2024). Human-centered natural language processing requires
incorporating human context into language models. Currently, two methods exist:
pre-training with 1) group-wise attributes (e.g., over-45-year-olds) or 2)
individual traits. Group attributes are simple but coarse -- not all
45-year-olds write the same way -- while individual traits allow for more
personalized representations, but require more complex modeling and data. It is
unclear which approach benefits what tasks. We compare pre-training models with
human context via 1) group attributes, 2) individual users, and 3) a combined
approach on five user- and document-level tasks. Our results show that there is
no best approach, but that human-centered language modeling holds avenues for
different methods
Gasification of meat and bone meal
No full textMeat and bone meal (MBM) is a byproduct of the rendering industries. It is found to be responsible for the transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in animals and is no longer used as a feed to animals. There are various methods for disposal of MBM such as land filling, incineration, combustion, pyrolysis and gasification. Gasification appears to be one of the best options. High temperature of gasification reaction destroys the potential BSE pathogens and produces gases which can be further used to produce valuable liquid chemicals by Fischer-Tropsch synthesis or to generate electricity. Gasification of meat and bone meal followed by thermal cracking/ reforming of tar was carried out using oxygen and steam separately at atmospheric pressure using a two-stage fixed bed reaction system in series. The first stage was used for the gasification and the second stage was used for thermal cracking/ reforming of tar.
Meat and bone meal was successfully gasified in the two-stage fixed bed reaction system using two different oxidants (oxygen and steam) separately. In gasification using oxygen, the effects of temperature (650 – 850 °C) of both stages, equivalence ratio (ER) (actual O2 supply/stoichiometric O2 required for complete combustion) (0.15 – 0.3) and the second stage packed bed height (40 – 100 mm) on the product (char, tar and gas) yield and gas (H2, CO, CO2, CH4, C2H4, C2H6, C3H6, C3H8) composition were studied. It was observed that the two-stage process increased hydrogen production from 7.3 to 22.3 vol. % (N2 free basis) and gas yield from 30.8 to 54.6 wt. % compared to single stage. Temperature and equivalence ratio had significant effects on the hydrogen production and product distribution. It was observed that higher gasification (850 °C) and cracking (850°C) reaction temperatures were favorable for higher gas yield of 52.2 wt. % at packed bed height of 60 mm and equivalence ratio of 0.2. The tar yield decreased from 18.6 wt. % to 14.2 wt. % and that of gas increased from 50.6 wt. % to 54.6 wt. % by changing the packed bed height of second stage from 40 to 100 mm while the gross heating value (GHV) of the product gas remained almost constant (16.2 – 16.5 MJ/m3).
In gasification using steam, effects of temperature (650 – 850 °C) of each stage, steam/MBM (wt/ wt) (0.4 -0.8), and packed bed height (40 -100 mm) in second stage on the product (Char, liquid and gas) distribution and gas (H2, CO, CO2, CH4, C2H4, other H/C) composition were studied. It was observed that higher reaction temperature (850 °C) was favorable for high gas and hydrogen yields. Char gasification improved from 27 to 13 wt. % and hydrogen yield increased from 36.2 to 49.2 vol. % with increase in steam/MBM (wt/ wt), while with increased in packed bed height increased gas (29.5 to 31.6 wt. %) and hydrogen (45 to 49.2 vol. %) yields. It didn’t show substantial effect on heavier hydrocarbons.
The kinetic parameters for the pyrolysis of meat and bone meal were determined using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) at three different heating rates (10, 15 and 25 °C/min) using distributed activation energy model (DAEM). The activation energy was found in the range of 60-246 kJ/mol for the temperature range of 496-758 K and their corresponding frequency factors were 6.63 x 103 to 8.7 x 1014 s-1
The presence of physician champions improved Kangaroo mother care in rural western India
No full textFirst author Apurv Soni is a student in the MD/PhD program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.AIM: This study determined the effect of physician champions on the two main components of Kangaroo mother care (KMC): skin-to-skin care and breastfeeding. METHODS: KMC practices among a retrospective cohort of 648 infants admitted to a rural Indian neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) between 5 January 2011 and 7 October 2014 were studied. KMC champions were identified based on their performance evaluation. We examined the effect of withdrawing physician champions on overall use, time to initiation and intensity of skin-to-skin care and breastfeeding, using separate models. RESULTS: In comparison to when KMC champions were present, their absence was associated with a 45% decrease in the odds of receiving skin-to-skin care, with a 95% Confidence Interval (CI) of 64% to 17%, a 38% decrease in the rate of initiation skin-to-skin care (95% CI 53% to 82%) and an average of 1.47 less hours of skin-to-skin care (95% CI -2.07 to -0.86). Breastfeeding practices were similar across the different champion environments. CONCLUSION: Withdrawing physician champions from the NICU setting was associated with a decline in skin-to-skin care, but not breastfeeding. Training healthcare workers and community stakeholders to become champions could help to scale up and maintain KMC practices.Clinical and Population Health ResearchMD/Ph
A methodology for prediction accuracy assessment of intelligent traffic signal control algorithms with SPaT messages
No full textNew smart traffic signal control algorithms are capable of predicting the traffic signal state (red, green, or amber) changes, which can be provided to users to achieve more efficient traffic flow. However, these predictions pose an uncertain impact on the traffic flow and safety depending upon the quality of prediction. The information regarding the current state as well as the predicted residual time of state is communicated to other users in the form of Signal Phase and Timing (SPaT) data. In this paper, the SPaT message data is analyzed from an on-road pilot of different traffic signal control algorithms on provincial roads in the Province of North Holland. For analysis, new methods and indicators for quantification of prediction accuracy and quality of algorithm are proposed. These indicators can either be used for correction of state change prediction in real-time or for comparative analysis of the performance of different traffic signal control algorithms. This paper presents three main findings. First, it is found that a half fixed algorithm has very high prediction accuracy up to 99% for optimized directions. Second, the prediction accuracy of Time to Amber predictions improved by around 30% with this algorithm. Third, the overall reliability of prediction always increased with the use of the algorithmAccepted Author ManuscriptTransport and Plannin
Nitrogen doped multilayer photo catalytically reduced graphene oxide floating gate : Al/PMMA/NrGO/SiO2/p–Si/Au based hybrid gate stack for non volatile memory applications
No full textPhoto catalytically assisted, multi–layer nitrogen doped reduced graphene oxide (ML–NrGO) is investigated as a promising charge storage layer in Al/PMMA/NrGO/SiO2/p–Si/Au structure. A considerable memory window (ΔW) of ∼3.3 V at ± 7 V sweep voltage and long data retention upto ∼ 105 s is demonstrated as an encouraging candidature for emerging memory hierarchies. The clockwise hysteresis supports the hole charge trapping mechanism in the NrGO based structure. The ML–NrGO memory devices provide the rapid programming, saturation of the program transients, store more data at less cost and reduced ballistic transport in the plane perpendicular to NrGO. The facile, solution processable, cost effective device processing and stable retention of the fabricated ML–NrGO based Al/PMMA/NrGO/SiO2/p–Si/Au flash memory structures proves to be a potential alternative for existing EEPROM based embedded applications and also for commercial scale production of flash memory based on flexible organic electronics
Autograph of Sonia Johnson in "The SisterWitch Conspiracy"
No full textThe title page and an autograph by the author, Sonia Johnson, in their work ""The SisterWitch Conspiracy"" with an inscription.To Carolyn, In appreciation of your courage and passion. Soni
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